Norweigan Wood isn't very typical of Murakami. Try The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

I like 東野　圭吾, though its not light reading at least for me. Norwegian Wood was, but these books are at a higher level.

I'm diving into the light novel genre for now because it's, well... lighter than most other genres (though not necessarily 'childish' or 'easy'). So far I've read the first two books from the 涼宮ハルヒシリーズ and they're quite fun, the characters are great. Now I'm reading the first book of  バッカーノ! (http://tinyurl.com/6blm6h), and I'm finding it entertaining. Some Japanese people also suggested I read 若草色のポシェット,池袋ウエストゲートパーク and 狼と香辛料, but I haven't bought them yet.

Another option if you want something that's not too heavy but still more "mature" is reading short story collections. Until now I've only read Akutagawa's 蜘蛛の糸 collection (http://tinyurl.com/6dr4gh) and found most of the stories inside to be very clever and interesting. The difficulty level varies a lot from story to story, however.

Breaking into Japanese Literature has many short stories with translations and definitions on the bottom of the page. The stories are short and interesting, so you're not likely to get bored. If you do get bored, you can just move on to the next one.

That 夢をかなえるぞう is also a show I'm currently watching.

Last edited by kazelee (2008 November 13, 4:26 pm)

Hi Ryujin, I had these recomendations before but I have not paid atention because the animes really suck. Now that you made it much clearer, I'll certainly give them a look.

mentat_kgs wrote:

Hi Ryujin, I had these recomendations before but I have not paid atention because the animes really suck. Now that you made it much clearer, I'll certainly give them a look.

Haha, I can't tell you how many times I hear my roommate tell me how much the Shana anime sucks. He actually just got the new one (16?) the other day and read through the whole thing straight in about 6 hours (skipping all his classes in the process).

This doesn't fit the "native author" qualification, but I've enjoyed reading Harry Potter in Japanese.  It's been nice to read alongside RTK1 because there are a lot of kanji (including plants, minerals, weapons and other odd things) but almost all have furigana.  So, I am seeing the kanji in context with the appropriate readings soon after studying them.  A lot of the used bookstores here (like Book-off) have the first three Harry Potter books for 105 yen each.

Last edited by KristinHolly (2008 November 14, 5:12 am)

etpan wrote:

I'm reading "Homeless chuugakusei" by Hiroshi Tanimura, it's an autobiography and it's fairly easy to read. The guy tells how he managed to survive in a park when he was in junior high school.

I'm reading this one as well. Or rather, I was. I decided to stop reading Japanese until I was done with RtK because I didn't like to see kanji I hadn't encountered yet without being able to learn them at the spot.

suffah wrote:

Are those anime novels the ones that look like manga on the outside but have text on the inside?  I always wondered what the heck those were, thought maybe they were for children so I never checked em out.

Yeah those are light novels. If you like anime you'll like those too.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B9%E3%82 … amp;sr=1-1  Scryed - manga

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B9%E3%82 … amp;sr=1-3 Scryed After - Light novel

Yeah, those URLs are ugly, but they work.

On amazon, manga almost always has コミック in the title.  (Or something very similar.)  The novels don't.

This has been my experience, but I am far from being able to read Japanese well enough to know that the is foolproof or the best way.

Also, Amazon sometimes lets you peak at pages of the book...  That's a big help.

suffah wrote:

Ryuujin27,

Are those anime novels the ones that look like manga on the outside but have text on the inside?  I always wondered what the heck those were, thought maybe they were for children so I never checked em out.

Yep, those are them. They are called "light novels" in English, or in Japanese 小説(shousetsu). Many anime are based off of these light novels. Unfortunately, the anime usually fall way short of the quality of the actual novel.

And just so you know, they are definitely not just for kids. They don't always use furigana, and they do use a lot of kanji. They're definitely quality material. Enjoy!

I recommend Keigo Higashino as well. His novels are very easy to approach, and he's a great writer.